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Van Morrison

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Van Morrison

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Also known as George Morrison, George Ivan Morrison, Sir George Morrison, Sir George Ivan Morrison, Van the Man

Northern Irish musician

AI overview

Van Morrison is a Northern Irish musician known for creating influential rock and soul music. His work has been significant in shaping popular music, though the specific details of his impact and most celebrated works would require additional context to fully explain.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
17

Top works

  • Lit up Inside / Keep 'Er Lit
  • Brown Eyed Girl
  • Van Morrison -- Guitar Anthology
  • Toma Interior
  • Van Morrison Anthology (Songbook)

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Northern Ireland
Active from
1945-08-31
blue-eyed soulchamber folkcontemporary folkfolkfolk popfolk rock

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
2,673,691
Total plays
60,899,840

Tags

singer-songwriterclassic rockfolkbluesrock

Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish musician, singer, and songwriter whose recording career began in the 1960s. His albums have achieved commercial success in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK Top 40, as well as internationally in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Morrison has scored top ten albums in the UK across four consecutive decades, most recently with "Latest Record Project, Volume 1" (2021). <a href="h

via Last.fm · Van Morrison

Quotes

  • Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing guitar, or a particular chord sequence, or blowing a horn, it's based on improvisation and spontaneity.
  • Where I feel this has cost me is in the personality situation, where you're expected to be a personality. You not only have to write and record, but you have to go out and sell it. Well, I'm not a salesman, and I'm very bad at selling things. If I had to do that for a living, I'd probably be completely broke. I can't sell myself. And I don't even want to. That's something that's not going to change.
  • Someone once described me as a maverick and that's what I would say. I'm a maverick not by choice but by conviction.
  • Like I say, the way I write songs is, you know, inspirational. I have to wait for it to happen. And when it happens I get lines, and I just write them down, you know. I'm not sort of a Tin Pan Alley sort of songwriter. I just sort of write down what I get - without censoring or questioning what it is and what it means, you know. Like later on I look at what it means, but not at the time.
  • Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
  • With Moondance, I wrote the melody first. I played the melody on a soprano sax and I knew I had a song so I wrote lyrics to go with the melody. That's the way I wrote that one. I don't really have any words to particularly describe the song, sophisticated is probably the word I'm looking for. For me, Moondance is a sophisticated song. Frank Sinatra wouldn't be out of place singing that.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Also known as
Van the Man , The Belfast Cowboy
Born
George Ivan Morrison , ( 1945-08-31 ) 31 August 1945 (age 80) , Belfast , Northern Ireland
Genres
Blue-eyed soul Celtic rock R&B folk blues jazz country gospel Christian
Occupations
Musician singer songwriter
Instruments
Vocals guitar harmonica saxophone
Works
Van Morrison discography
Years active
1958–present
Labels
Decca Parrot Bang Warner Bros. London Mercury Exile Polydor Verve Pointblank Virgin Universal Blue Note Lost Highway Listen to the Lion EMI Manhattan RCA BMG Sony Legacy
Formerly of
Them
Website
vanmorrison .com

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official website
www.vanmorrison.com
Image
Van-Morrison.jpg
Show 7 more facts
birth name
George Ivan Morrison
Commons category
Van Morrison
date of birth
1945-08-31
pseudonym
Van Morrison
start of work period
1958-00-00
social media followers
449000
name in native language
Van Morrison
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Article

Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish musician, singer, and songwriter whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK Top 40, as well as internationally, including in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands.

He has scored top ten albums in the UK in four consecutive decades, following the success of 2021's Latest Record Project, Volume 1. Eighteen of his albums have reached the top 40 in the United States, twelve of them between 1997 and 2017. Since turning 70 in 2015, he has released – on average – more than an album a year. His accolades include two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the 2017 Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting, and inductions into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was knighted for services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland.

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